Beyond the Bulgarian umbrella

"The current situation has made it necessary for the First
Main Directorate (PGU) of [Russia's]
KGB to give the First Main Directorate of [Bulgaria's] Ministry of Internal
Affairs the following special means: devices for silent, mechanical ejection of
special needles, containing swift poisons. ..."

The above is an excerpt from Addendum 13 of the "Perspective
plan for cooperation between the intelligence services of USSR and communist
Bulgaria in the period 1972-1975"--a secret document made public thanks to
Hristo Hristov, an investigative reporter with the Bulgarian independent daily Dnevnik
who won a six-year-long legal battle for access to the secret archives of Bulgaria's
National Investigative Service (NRS), the country's security agency. Last week,
Hristov published his book The Double Life
of Agent Piccadilly, based on more than 90 volumes of previously
undisclosed NRS documents that shed light on the 1978 murder in London of
Bulgarian dissident journalist Georgi Markov.

The "current situation," as described in Addendum 13, refers
to Markov's critical BBC and Radio Liberty broadcasts against the communist
regime of Bulgarian dictator Todor Zhivkov. Markov--a prominent writer and
journalist--had defected to London
in the late 1960s, but continued to energize the Bulgarian dissident community
with his writings and radio commentary. Supporters thought of Markov as the
Bulgarian Solzhenitsyn; the regime perceived him as the enemy whose activities
justified the use of "special means" of elimination.

In September 1978, the means reached the end--Markov died in
a London
hospital of a mysterious flu-like illness, four days after being injected with
the poison ricin, concentrated in a pellet doctors found in Markov's body
post-mortem. Markov told colleagues he remembered someone pricking him in the
leg as he walked across WaterlooBridge to work that day;
when he turned to see who it was, he said he noticed a stranger picking up an
umbrella from the ground. Since then, the ominous legend of the "Bulgarian
umbrella" that was used as a murder weapon spread throughout Europe.
It was widely believed that the assassin used the umbrella's tip to inject the ricin
pellet into Markov's body. But Hristov argues in his book that the assassin
used the umbrella not as weapon but as a distraction, and that the real weapon
was a pen-like injection--the kind of device for "mechanical ejection of special
needles, containing swift poisons," described in Addendum 13.

Thirty years later, Bulgarian authorities decided to forego
the statute of limitation on Markov's case and keep the investigation open. As
they should. The purported killer--Francesco Gullino, a Dane of Italian origin
contracted for the job by the Bulgarian communist leadership under the code
name "Piccadilly"--is still at large. So are the masterminds of the murder.

The investigation into Markov's case, moreover, might
illuminate more recent journalist poisonings in which Russian Security Service
(FSB) involvement is suspected. (FSB is the successor to the KGB.) In July
2003, Yuri
Shchekochikhin, the deputy editor of the independent newspaper Novaya
Gazeta, was overtaken by flu-like symptoms while on a business trip outside
Moscow. When he
returned, his condition worsened rapidly, leading to organ failure; several
days later, Shchekochikhin was dead. Doctors said he developed a sudden "acute
allergy" but could not find the cause. Shchekochikhin's medical records were
sealed, the case was buried. Colleagues believe he was poisoned to stop him
from further uncovering an intricate, high-level corruption scheme.

A year later, Anna Politkovskaya
fell ill and was hospitalized after drinking tea on a plane bound for the North Caucasus. Politkovskaya was en route to Beslan on
September 1, 2004, to cover the hostage crisis at School No.1 that claimed the
lives of more than 330 people--mostly children. She never reached her
destination. Her colleagues at Novaya Gazeta believe she was poisoned.
As in the case of Shchekochikhin, Politkovskaya's medical tests were never
disclosed. She survived that attempt on her life, but it was never
investigated. Politkovskaya was later shot to death
in October 2006.

The "Bulgarian umbrella" might be a Cold War legend. But the
ghost of Georgi Markov--as well as those of Yuri Shchekochikhin and Anna
Politkovskaya--obligate us all to look beyond the myths and seek to uncover the
truth. It is just what Hristo Hristov has done with his book.

Nina Ognianova is coordinator of CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia Program. A native of Bulgaria, Ognianova has led CPJ advocacy missions to Russia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Kazakhstan.